How to Stop the Rain

“Rain, rain, go away. Come again another day.”

It sounds like a simple children’s rhyme. But people have been trying to keep rain away for a very long time.

Before weather forecasts, people had their own ways of dealing with unwanted rain. Some were simple. Others were pretty strange.

Here are some of the ways different traditions tried to keep the rain away.

Before the Rain

☀️ Drawing the sun. In Hermoza, Bayambang, Pangasinan, Philippines, people would draw the sun on the ground when rain looked likely to spoil an important event. The drawing was meant to discourage the rain from coming.

👕 Hanging tomorrow’s shirt outside. In the same Pangasinan, Philippines tradition, people would hang outside the clothes they planned to wear the next day, hoping the rain would stay away from an important event.

🧹 Waving a broom at the sky. Another practice in Bayambang, Pangasinan, Philippines, involved waving a broom or broomstick toward the sky, hoping to keep the coming rain away.

🥚 Offering raw eggs. Before an important event, people in Bayambang, Pangasinan, Philippines, would offer raw eggs to saints on an altar as part of the weather-related practices remembered in the area.

🥚 Burying an eggshell. In a traditional practice recorded among the Hiaina of Morocco, an empty eggshell would be filled with rainwater, sealed, and buried. It was later taken out when rain was wanted again.

During the Rain

☀️ Showing the sun to the sky. In Hermoza, Bayambang, Pangasinan, Philippines, when rain had already started, people would draw and color the sun on paper and hold the picture up toward the sky.

🔥 Burning cloth. Another practice in Bayambang, Pangasinan, Philippines, involved burning a piece of used cloth and shaking it under the floor of the house during an impending thunderstorm.

🎵 Singing the rain away. In 17th-century Britain, the old rhyme was already being treated almost like a little weather charm. In 1659, James Howell, a Welsh writer and historian, recorded an earlier version: “Rain, rain, go to Spain; fair weather come again.” Later records describe children singing similar words to “charm away” the rain.

So, can you really stop the rain with a drawing, a broom, an egg, a piece of cloth, or a song?

No scientific evidence says you can.

But these traditions are fascinating because they show how people once answered a sky they could not control. They did not have radar or satellite maps. They had rituals, symbols, faith, and a very human desire to say:

“Rain, rain, not today.
Let the sun find its way.”

⌨ ᴛʸᵖⁱⁿᵍ ᴏᵘᵗ ᵒᶠ ᵗʰᵉ ʙˡᵘᵉ ᵈᵃʳᵉᵐ ᵐᵘˢⁱᶜ ᵇˡᵒᵍ